Page 48 of Beggars, Sin, and Wine

If she was half as good as Benji and a quarter as abusive with them, we were all doomed. Cas and I would do whatever they wanted. If she had a mischievous streak like Benji, Sheriff Riddle was never going to know a day of peace.

“My puppy dog eyes aren’t quite like yours, but I know how to deal with Cas. I’m a lot older than all of you and I’ve been with Di since I was twenty-seven. He’s less of a workaholic than my friend who makes my glasses, but they both forget to eat or take a break when their instincts are screaming at them. It’s a completely different approach depending on who I’m dealing with, but I can redirect them.

“And Cas is just going to have to deal with it because when I can stand up for longer than five minutes without getting dizzy, I’m going to take over some of the cooking. I’ve got thousands of years of recipes from all over the world in my head and I enjoy taking care of people, too.”

Benji was right. Medusa being fated to us was starting to make a lot more sense the more time I spent around her. I thought she was our balance if something happened and we had to bring Benji back from the rails because she was the only person who could stop a shadow wolf.

I could tell she was stubborn. I didn’t know how long she was in New Eden, but she wasn’t nearly as broken as I would have expected. Medusa was fated to us because of Cas, too. When his bear was in overdrive trying to take care of his pack, she was going to be there making sure he got taken care of, too.

We all needed to take care of her. If there were any broken pieces from the Coalition or Poseidon, we needed to put them back together.

A fated mate was someone who was perfect for you in every way. Di had better explain what he meant about her taking down the Coalition.

We couldn’t lose her now that we found her.

Cas came back and said he didn’t know what kind of sheets I liked, but he left cotton, microfiber, and silk in both bedrooms. Pax and Benji pointed it out before I could really notice, but Cas was going to need me to care for him just as much as he was going overboard to take care of me.

I cared less about the sheets right now. I was putting on a brave face, but Athena and Hannibal were still out there somewhere. Pax said Hannibal was the leader of the Coalition. He was an egotistical, greedy fuck, and this was going to make him look bad. If my friends didn’t find him, he’d be doing damage control.

The Coalition had sympathizers everywhere, even law enforcement. He’d want us rounded up and placed back in our little torture boxes. The chances of him finding this place were pretty slim since humans hadn’t so far. Not unless a certain god who was still pissed I dared get raped in her temple decided to swoop in and tell him.

Which I wouldn’t put past her. The whole fucking reason I ended up in a Coalition basement was that Di had to leave for work and she swooped in and fucked up my life just recently. Her magic was running through my veins because of her curse, so she could always find me.

I was getting dizzy and having trouble breathing. My heart was pounding, and I felt hot and cold at the same time. I actually thought I was dying. Maybe Athena found me and finally decided to put me out of my misery.

I was in Cas’s arms in seconds and being pressed between Cas, Benji, and Pax. I knew they couldn’t protect me from a god, but I instantly started feeling better.

“Breathe. You’re having a panic attack. Focus on me. Name three things about me. Anything and they don’t have to be nice,” Cas said.

“Your eyes are insanely blue. That white hair looks super soft. And I can’t get over how good you smell.”

“Good. Now, name three things in this room.”

“You all have really good taste for not having a woman live here. It’s also very clean. Those paintings on the wall are amazing.”

“Your heart rate has slowed. How are you feeling?”

“Better. I can’t believe that worked. The last time that happened was right after Poseidon and Athena and there wasn’t really a name for it. I thought I was dying then, too. It’s just been so long since it happened, I forgot how bad it felt.”

“I had them, too, when I escaped. There wasn’t a name for it then either, but Cas helped me through it. It gets better,” Benji said.

I needed to warn them about Athena. I couldn’t let anything bad happen to them.

“Athena didn’t just curse me thousands of years ago and send me on my way. She keeps popping up when I get settled and happy and blowing up my life. It was her fault I got caught by the Coalition. Athena won’t bother me if Di is here, but he won’t come back until his work is done and right now, he’s focused on New Eden Asylum. She could blow all of his up and send the Coalition here. If you want me to leave, I understand.”

“Never,” Pax said. “We’ve got precautions in place.”

“She’ll tear through any wards you have set. She’s a god.”

Cas shook his head.

“I don’t think she would expose this place to get to you. All Di told us was that we were rescuing a god-touched green witch, and dropped enough hints that it was Athena. We did a deep dive into Athena because we thought we were on one of her hero quests. She’s the patron god of heroes and there are a lot of those in this village. Some of these people are Coalition victims turned people who help them.

“We just helped a lot of people and so did you. I lead one of the biggest networks for getting supernaturals out or away from the Coalition if they think they’ve been had. I don’t know what Di meant about you being the key to stopping them, but maybe Athena has figured that out, too. You’ve met her and we haven’t. Do you think she’s petty enough to make every single supernatural in the United States suffer?”

I blew out a breath because the answer should have been no. Athena was a brilliant strategist, and she always saw the bigger picture.

“Athena is a patron god of heroes and the arts. She’s a god of war, but she’s also the god of peace. She’s not usually about taking innocent lives, but she cursed me and Arachne. It wasn’t my fault Poseidon raped me and Arachne beat her fair and square. Athena is not exactly rational when she thinks she’s been wronged.”

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